There was a new service launched at the beginning of the month that follows all uses of your brand, domain, special keywords and more - Search Monitor. And before you jump at me for the plug I am not associated with it at all. I was sent the press release and information about the product and from what I have seen so far this could be a great tool for reputation management, keeping an eye on competitors using your name etc. or even to track affiliates.

Following in the high-heeled footsteps of " Sex and the City: The Movie " comes another film that's sure to make boyfriends around the world run for cover. Prepare thyself for " Friends: The Movie ." Mwa ha ha! That's right, kids. Rumor has it that there is renewed interest in bringing the six fabulously perky and quirky New Yorkers to the big screen. You can either thank or blame "Sex and the City" for this news.

Hitwise Intelligence's VP for Research, Heather Hopkins made an interesting analysis of Yahoo! online properties based on some Hitwise data. Hopkins noted that of the top 20 Yahoo properties for June 2008 based on internet visits, Yahoo! Search was just a mere third trailing behind Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo main portal. Yahoo Search got a mere 12% share of the total number of visitors going to Yahoo's properties for the said month.

Don't forget to catch me at the SEO Meetup next Thursday, 7pm in Charlotte, NC . For just $35 you'll learn Online Reputation Management in Seven Steps , as well as get to network with Charlotte's talented search marketers. If you're still on the fence about attending my one day Online Reputation Management Workshop in Raleigh (August 7th), the Charlotte event will give you a good taster. Register here . Pilgrim's Partners: SponsoredReviews.com - Bloggers earn cash,

Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience Late one night in the summer of 2000, I found myself answering user support emails in response to two new features we had just released, Advanced Search and Preferences (at the time catchily called "Language, Display, and Filtering Options" :)). Busy crafting answers about how to set Safesearch or change the number of results offered by default, I worked my way through the email queue.

Thank you Thomas Jefferson for winning us Americans the freedom to do our weekly wrap-up posts a day early. That's what it's all about isn't it? Oh yeah and blowing off your pinkie with a firecracker ??" what, just me?

All right, let's face it: it's the afternoon before a three-day weekend and your brain is already on vacation. And that's why we're here at linky extra goodnessa round up of the marketing news you'll want to know come Monday. Oh nm, my bad : Googler JohnMu retracts his previous statements (mentioned yesterday ) about banning countries/regions/continents from your website being "cloaking," as long as you also ban any Googlebots coming from those IP blocks.

ZDNet today writes : <<Google has confirmed that personal data of US employees hired prior to 2006 has been stolen in a recent burglary. Records kept at Colt Express Outsourcing Services, an external company used by Google and other companies to handle human-resources functions, were stolen in a burglary on 26 May. An undisclosed number of employees' details and those of dependents, such as names, addresses, and social security numbers, were on the stolen computers.

Search Engine Optimization has never been more important than it is today for a growing online business. As more and more websites come up in the rankings SEO and pay per click has become much more important as part of your online marketing strategy. Yahoo's small business search marketi ng program has been created to nicely compliment any organic online marketing. For those who want visibility right away yahoo's pay per click campaign is the right path to take.

Posted by rebecca Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week: One star link: Hacker News started a thread asking why hackers hate SEO . Most of the answers are frustrating, though some folks chime in to defend our industry. Three star links: The fellas at Nordic eMarketing went duck herding in SEOmoz t-shirts . Glad to see our shirts were put to good use!